However, this sensitive and confidential information is not as well protected as we would like.
Women all over the world use practical and helpful smartphone apps with which they can track their cycle. The information stored in it no longer exclusively relates to the duration or occurrence of the next menstruation. Psychological and physical changes, desires or even sexual activities can be noted in such apps, and some also offer the opportunity to find out about the progress of the pregnancy so that you can always stay informed about the developments that are currently taking place in your little belly.
Intimate information that you don't really want to share with anyone
This was also the view of over 43 million women worldwide who confided their physical changes to the “FLO” app. But then many users had a rude awakening when they were notified in July that the operators of this app had forwarded this sensitive data with an identification number about themselves and information about their pregnancies and menstrual cycles to other companies between 2016 and 2019. These included analytics departments from Facebook, Google and Co.
When your Facebook feed adapts to your cycle
As early as 2019, research by the Wall Street Journal showed that apps like “FLO” informed Facebook without the user’s consent when a woman had gotten her period or wanted to have a child. After this offense became known, “FLO” stopped this procedure and had to provide all users with sufficient information on official instructions.
Legal evidence: menstrual cycle
Since the right to abortion was overturned in the USA in June of this year, it is now up to the individual states to decide whether abortion is legal or not. Insufficiently protected health data can be fatal for the women affected if they are to be accessed by a court order. It is not surprising that there have been increasing calls to delete menstrual apps immediately.
Anonymous tracking
If you still don't want to miss out on the advantages of a cycle app, you can switch to other providers. “Clue”, based in Berlin, promotes its stricter data protection guidelines. “Spot on”, an app from the non-profit organization Planned Parenthood, enables anonymous use and ensures that the data is only saved locally on your smartphone.
“You deserve the right to protect your data!”
In the future, “FLO” wants to better protect its users’ data. This application also offers an anonymous mode in which neither name nor email address should be saved. This would make it practically impossible to identify the users.
Source: derStandard
Related:
Cycle apps on smartphones share sensitive data
Cycle apps: Do tracking apps share sensitive data with Facebook?
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